Support the eBook Revolution!

There’s a coming eBook tsunami, only very few people are getting surf boards ready to ride it when it finally does arrive. Unfortunately, most people still prefer to read paper books, not the much more sensible eBooks, and the few that have woken up to the future of the eBook revolution, are almost all using Amazon Kindles.

The problem is Amazon is intent on maintaining this near-monopoly and monopolies are seldom beneficial to anyone except the majority shareholders of the corporation holding them. And they have a way of back-firing. Remember when MySpace held a near-monopoly on social networking?

The first thing people need to do is realize eBooks are going to replace real books and this tipping point is very soon upon us. Just as fast and sudden as iTunes replaced vinyl records, eBooks and eMagazines will replace their paper alternatives. Remember the time when people laughed at the idea of digital files replacing records? After all, records sound much better. Who would give up audio quality for the convenience of digital files? Everybody, that’s who. The advantages of eBooks over real books are undeniable and just as significant as the advantages of digital music over vinyl. Wouldn’t you rather have your entire bookshelf located in a cloud? And wouldn’t you be better off if you could access every single book and magazine you owned on any device, tablet, cell phone, or computer, anywhere, anytime?

Some have already entered this new dimension. And the early arrivals will always have a leg-up all the slow-moving Luddites who inevitably follow. But there is a major speed-bump in the development of the eBook marketplace. Amazon Kindle does not a distribution deal with smashword, where I publish my eBook catalogue. Amazon seems to be trying to squeeze independent publishers practically out-of-existence.

To preserve a democratic marketplace, it’s essential consumers support the alternative platforms, like iTunes and the Nook Store, both of which support smashwords.com. Start building your eBook collection, now! I promise you won’t regret making the switch from paper.

Most of my eBooks appear at Amazon, Smashwords and iTunes. Half of my eBooks are free to download, and all of those are on Smashwords. EBooks cost a fraction of their paper counterparts. So let’s stop cutting trees and start reading eBooks!